News and Events

New Milestones publication now available

Every year, the Center for Cancer Research makes remarkable contributions to the understanding, detection, treatment and prevention of cancer. This issue of our annual publication, Milestones, features some of our top scientific advances in the past year at CCR. These discoveries include two new FDA-approved therapies, insights into how to design RNA-targeted therapeutics and new ways to predict treatment outcomes in immunotherapy. Other major advances include the development of new computational tools – for identifying viruses in cancer genomes and to elucidate the consequences of DNA damage – and novel diagnostic tools – one to detect liver cancer, another to precisely detect prostate cancer.

Clinical trial evaluates combination therapy for men with metastatic prostate cancer

Ravi A. Madan, M.D., Senior Clinician in the Genitourinary Malignancies Branch, is leading a study of an experimental treatment for men with two types of prostate cancer: one type that responds to hormone therapy and one that doesn’t.

New finding reveals how some cancers gain or lose chromosomes

Some cancers have an abnormal number of chromosomes, and patients with these cancers tend to have a worse prognosis. CCR researchers have uncovered how overexpression of just one protein can cause these chromosome abnormalities – hinting at a mechanism that could be therapeutically targeted.

Drug lessens symptoms of severe chronic graft-versus-host disease

About half of patients who receive allogeneic stem cell transplants, a treatment for blood cancer, develop a difficult-to-treat condition called chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD). CCR investigators have found that pomalidomide, an immune-modulating drug, can reduce symptoms in patients with severe cases of cGVHD.

A key mechanism that fuels uncontrolled cell growth is uncovered in yeast

Scientists have long wondered how cancer cells use a protein complex, called TOR, to survive and proliferate in nutrient-poor conditions. Now, CCR researchers have discovered how a protein that is targeted by TOR drives this process, which holds important implications for understanding cancer and some genetic disorders.

Registration and abstract submission now open for RNA Biology Symposium

The symposium offers the opportunity to learn more about the current status of RNA biology in development and disease, share research with leading figures in the field and discuss the use and implications of these advances for clinical applications. Sessions Include: RNA Processing; RNA Structure and Mechanism; Non-Classical RNAs; and RNA Therapy. Learn more...

amplified TNIK contributes to LSCC progression

Potential therapeutic target for lung squamous cell carcinoma identified

CCR researchers have identified the protein TNIK as a therapeutic target for lung squamous cell carcinoma, the second most common type of lung cancer. Using human lung cancer cells transplanted into preclinical models, researchers found that the cells responded to a pharmacological treatment that inhibited TNIK and also resulted in cell death in the transplanted tumor cells.

Clinical trial studies immunotherapy combination for recurrent thymoma and thymic carcinoma

Thymic epithelial tumors (TETs) are rare cancers that originate from the cells of the thymus, a small organ that sits in the chest between the lungs and above the heart. Arun Rajan, M.D., Senior Clinician in the Thoracic and GI Malignancies Branch, is leading a clinical trial of a therapy for thymoma and thymic carcinoma that has returned after chemotherapy and cannot be treated with surgery.

Fecal microbiota transplants help patients with advanced melanoma respond to immunotherapy

A collaborative study between the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center at the University of Pittsburgh suggests that fecal microbiota transplants can help patients with advanced melanoma respond to immunotherapy. “Our study is one of the first to demonstrate in patients that altering the composition of the gut microbiome can improve the response to immunotherapy,” says study co-leader Giorgio Trinchieri, M.D., Chief of CCR’s Laboratory of Integrative Cancer Immunology.

New way to address chemoresistance linked to the protein SLFN11

CCR researchers have discovered two complementary roles for the protein Schlafen-11 (SLFN11) in determining patient response to chemotherapy. These findings have implications for how to overcome this resistance and provide new treatment options for patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and many other cancers.

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